Posts tagged children
genderqueer
beyond the binaries
In conjunction with the LGBT Consortium, Gendered Intelligence has produced a ‘A guide for parents and family members of trans people in the UK’. We hope that this might offer parents and family members some information about what it means to be trans, how it might feel as a parent or family member of a young trans person, and perhaps most importantly, a bit of advice on how to move forward after a young person has shared their trans identity with their family.
This booklet was compiled through a series of focus groups with parents and family members of young trans people.
It is available online here, or you can order hard copies on our website.
Gendered Intelligence also runs ‘SOFFA’ youth group sessions every quarter, which are for significant others, family, friends and allies to come along with trans young people, meet other families of trans people and gain support. More details of our next SOFFA session will be posted soon on our tumblr.
(via artoftransliness)
Look how your children grow up. Taught from their earliest infancy to curb their love natures — restrained at every turn! Your blasting lies would even blacken a child’s kiss. Little girls must not be tomboyish, must not go barefoot, must not climb trees, must not learn to swim, must not do anything they desire to do which Madame Grundy has decreed “improper.” Little boys are laughed at as effeminate, silly girl-boys if they want to make patchwork or play with a doll. Then when they grow up, “Oh! Men don’t care for home or children as women do!” Why should they, when the deliberate effort of your life has been to crush that nature out of them. “Women can’t rough it like men.” Train any animal, or any plant, as you train your girls, and it won’t be able to rough it either.
Voltairine de Cleyre (via petitefeministe)
The best part of this essay is when she advocates for children to be brought up with no gender-role stereotyping, and gets in some not-so-subtle digs at heterocentricism and heterosexism in the process.
Did I mention this was written over a hundred years ago? Because it totally was.
(via missvoltairine)
(Source: liberationfrequency, via inkstainedqueer)
Isaac, age 7, Karratha, Western Australia, 1995
werrrrk
A video about the upcoming children’s book, Polkadot. A series of children’s books that center the experiences of non-binary and other diverse gender identities.
Reposting the kickstarter link because I think this an amazing project worth funding:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1429207749/polkadot-a-gender-non-binary-childrens-book-series
Pink Zebra Ninja Shoes
Yesterday my mom posted a picture on Facebook of my 5 year old brother Sam wearing a pair of shoes he picked out for his first day of preschool.
She explained to him in the store that they were really made for girls. Sam then told her that he didn’t care and that “ninjas can wear pink shoes too.”
Sam went to preschool and got several compliments on his new shoes. Not one kid said anything negative toward him about it.
However, my mom received about 20 comments on the photo from various family members saying how “wrong” it is and how “things like this will affect him socially” and, put most eloquently by my great aunt, “that shit will turn him gay.”
My mom then deleted the photo and told Sam that he can wear whatever he wants to preschool, that it’s his decision. If he wants to wear pink shoes, he can wear pink shoes.
Sam then explained to her that he didn’t like them because they were pink, he liked them because they were “made out of zebras” and zebras are his favorite animal :)
(Source: batmansbutt, via xyalice)
A brief gender-nonconforming kid resource roundup by Lesbian Dad
Oliver Button Is a Sissy by Tomie dePaola
Oliver’s classmates tease him because he’d rather dance than play ball. You can read the whole story here, though without illustrations.
Article - "Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschool"
Karin A. Martin
Many feminist scholars argue that the seeming naturalness of gender differences, particularly bodily difference, underlies gender inequality. Yet few researchers ask how these bodily differences are constructed. Through semi-structured observation in five preschool classrooms, I examine one way that everyday movements, comportment, and use of physical space become gendered. I find that the hidden school curriculum that controls children’s bodily practices in order to shape them cognitively serves another purpose as well. This hidden curriculum also turns children who are similar in bodily comportment, movement, and practice into girls and boys-children whose bodily practices differ. I identify five sets of practices that create these differences: dressing up, permitting relaxed behaviors or requiring formal behaviors, controlling voices, verbal and physical instructions regarding children’s bodies by teachers, and physical interactions among children. This hidden curriculum that (partially) creates bodily differences between the genders also makes these physical differences appear and feel natural.
Interesting article that details the ways in which preschool teachers instill an ethic of “boys will be boys” and female submissiveness.
(via genderinfinite)
gqid:
Gender Now Coloring Book, by Maya Christina Gonzales (Amazon | Preview on Issuu)
“Gender is something relevant to all of us because we all express gender. You may or may not be transgender. You may or may not know a transgender child. The truth is that doesn’t matter. We are all on this planet together. Gender Now is meant to provide reflection and support unity by showing multiple genders standing together. It is a specific opportunity to create balance and awareness by including gender expressions that are under-represented in our current culture.”
I stumbled upon this great book recently when seeking out trans* and genderqueer resources - what a fabulous idea! The presentation makes it easy to follow for someone who is new to the idea of non-binary and trans* gender expression, with particular accessibility for young people. I love how it is gender diversity positive and body-positive, with lines like “There are LOTS AND LOTS of different types of bodies. This means there are LOTS AND LOTS of different ways to feel like a girl or boy or simply a person on the inside of your body. In fact, there are so many different bodies and ways to feel inside your body what we really need are more words than just boy and girl.” Cute and whimsical illustrations. Bear in mind that the terminology is not always technical or preferable - the intention is to make these concepts easy to grasp and fun to learn about. Also available in a classroom version. Highly recommended!
“In 1920, the paper doll Baby Bobby has a pink dress in his wardrobe, as well as lace-trimmed collars and underclothes.”
(From the Smithsonian article, “When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?”)
